isabel

I was wondering this too if individuality is in the mind and consciousness is one then what would the individual soul even be? eckhart tolle sort of says there is one...but I don't understand what he means

my mom is a narcissist if it wasn't for that suffering I would not be where I am today, which is on the verge of discovering everything, I don't know if I will ever become enlightened or whatever but I love feeling like I'm on the verge it's a big challenge I still get upset at times but I've had moments where I can forgive and even thank her - those have been some amazing moments! and now that's all I want, more moments like that - but apparently I have to stop wanting them in order to get them or something , but I love not trying to stop wanting <3 <3

afaik the anger and the judgement comes from the mind/thoughts so that screen was your mind hiding god from you I've not seen god, but I almost saw the toe of god and in just almost seeing that I saw that there is nothing but good stuff so there is only good stuff and your mind cutting you off from the good stuff

wow how cool, so amazing that I'm seeing this today I had forgotten about a dream that I had where a presence like an angel came and said to stop worrying because everything is fine it was 8 or 10 years ago and everything was not fine so I always wondered why that dream seemed so real but I figured it was just a weird dream but now today after reading this, I think not the message now is so clear, omg, it's been fine this whole time... thank you for this post

that gave me chills, thanks for sharing that!

yes! I love this, there is only truth and the mind trying to hide the truth.

there is an idea of me that exists in my mind consciousness identifies with that me (I am a person) when I die that me in my mind will disappear but consciousness continues on in the minds of others and in trees, the sun, and everything so if it's the mind that creates the idea of individuality then where does that leave the individual soul, is there one? and how would the idea of past lives then work, if there is one consciousness then haven't we all lived all the past lives? thanks!

same type of thing is happening to me, just keep practicing, for me it been getting easier all the time and I'm having understanding after understanding and am currently understanding that I've just scratched the surface super exciting stuff

me too! the only reason I know the bible as well as I do is because I wanted to debunk it lol and yes on the second too, "laugh to yourself" is very important, if you laugh out loud they get mad...and also I learned not to tell someone that their crisis is actually a gift from the universe, they hate that haha

eckhart tolle describes the bible as "a mixed bag" because some of it is still clear but other parts have been so twisted that they've pretty much lost all original meaning the first bibles were written in latin when practically no one but the highest members of the church spoke latin and to translate it to another language was a crime punishable by death the bible was not written to spread knowledge, it was written to hide and keep control of knowledge, so a lot of it can't be understood unless you already understand it - and that's mainstream religion in the US today lol

someone once told me that if you looked through a telescope that could see forever, you would see the back of your own head

consciousness is not somewhere else away from us, there is a space but we are in the space already a baby being born is consciousness taking form so the consciousness in the baby is something that was here with us the whole time so are babies enlightened? yes, everything is probably...idk really

what do you mean you banned everything? it's fine if that's your path but it's not necessary at all, just sayin cause you seem like you're not into it

demons are just aspects of yourself that you imagine to be outside of yourself why not eliminate the middle man?

you have to let go of the part of yourself that wants it in order to get it lol

yes, the same thing happened to me, isn't it so funny? omg funny, perfect, and intricate and amazing and I also found out the same as you that it's just opening the door, I'm excited to see what's next a lot of things still "bother" me but I also know there are a lot of things that will never bother me again, big things and I can be fine with them some of the time, it's crazy! just these last few days I realized that if I embrace and love a negative feeling in my body it goes away and the peaceful feeling comes back- acceptance, who knew?! (I'm definitely not doing this all the time but I hope to if I keep at it) it's so exciting to live it because when you see that some of this is real and works on a daily basis it makes you think the rest is probably for real too it's interesting that a lot of spiritual teachers and all the books seem to say the same thing, did you notice that? even now the bible seems to make sense when it never did before, haha just wow

If what's happening to him is having a negative affect on his life on a regular basis then he needs more help than you can give him. There's more than one world and in the world where pretty much all humans live it's actually not okay if he hurts himself so I would find a doctor and make an appointment for him to have a mental and physical evaluation - if you think he needs that then he probably does.

If consciousness is within everything, then when a person dies why do people say that consciousness merges back with everything, wouldn't it just then be a dead body? Or is it just the thoughts/mind that keeps consciousness from seeing itself as everything, so when there is no mind it naturally sees itself as everything? So things with no mind are already everything, like a stone, or a desk, or a body that has died? Or a person who is alive but has no thoughts? ?

I took a lot of psychedelics as a kid so my mind knows how things can be more than what they normally are. As an adult now many years later I don't do psychedelics anymore and I have mystical experiences every once in a while with no drugs. I get there by thinking or by not thinking. I used to think I got there by accident but it's not an accident, if you take the time each day to meditate on nothing you may not have the experience during meditation it can just hit you out of the blue sometime during the day, I used to think that was by accident but it's not it's because of your daily practice, it just doesn't happen when you're trying to make it happen, lol That happened to me for years and I never knew what was going on but waking up is like trying to fall asleep, the more you try to make yourself fall asleep the harder it is...and vice versa lol I just recently learned that But you don't have to think about nothing, you can focus intensely on "spiritual" things, like healing or the meaning of life, or any question like that and you can do it anytime, waiting for something to load on your computer, waiting in line, waiting for water to boil, if you have insomnia, walking to the store... My mystical experiences so far have ranged from just being nearly in tears to laughing and crying out loud like a crazy person, feeling completely at peace as if I'm full and completely satisfied, I've felt realization physically wash over my body, you know it's real because you can feel it physically. Also there is a feeling that can last for hours, if you've ever taken pain killers, it is almost exactly like that. You have a happy feeling in your body and nothing bothers you. You still know that things are happening like you may have a ton of bills to pay, it's still there you but you're not worried about it at all, almost exactly the same as pain killers like codeine. There's so much more but this is getting too long probably.

I totally agree, I took a lot of acid and mushrooms as a kid - just to laugh and have fun. It's about 26 years since my last trip and now the path to enlightenment is pretty much my only thing that I do, why? Maybe it was all that acid I took as a kid...I think it primed my mind I'd love to try it again now with a different goal but now that I'm older I worry about having a heart attack or something lol

If there's no death, no good, no bad, and if suffering serves a purpose in the world then why not just eat meat? And also can we even kill animals that don't want to be killed?

That's the tip of the iceberg? Can anyone describe what is beyond that or how you know that's the tip of the iceberg?

@tsuki Wow! Thank you so much tsuki, I hope I can be that clear one day. I got a lot from all the answers on this thread, and from the whole forum really, an amazing group of people, I'm so glad I found this group.

@tsuki Thank you. (wow) There is no external consciousness and there is only one person. I am supposed to understand exactly what I am here and now, am I everything? What is nondual? There is only one person playing various roles by blinding itself. Yes! I actually got that one day and I cried and laughed because I thought it was so funny that we all believe that we're different people, but sometimes we hurt each other but sometimes that's what starts you towards waking up, so that's why I'm wondering what is suffering? And why would it then be bad to cause suffering and it is even possible to cause suffering? Suffering in MY experience, so who put it there? Me? And is that the same with animals? If I eat an animal then I am the animal being eaten so how could I do that to myself if I'm not okay with it? Sorry lol, it's too many questions I know, and like you said some of these probably don't have any answers...

I have a sense of well being on a many days, not intense usually, just a sort of gentle happiness and I'm not concerned about much if anything. I still have some not so good days though and I'm noticing that occasionally I wake up and without even having a chance to be conscious of my thoughts I'm already thinking stuff like "omg that bitch did that to me last year 3 times" lol But usually I'm good in the mornings but I lose that feeling as the day goes on and I feel terrible in the evenings and I can't stop those types of thoughts. So how do you keep the good state of being going for the whole day? And does anyone know why it's easier in the morning, or is that just me?